Archives for category: Betsy DeVos
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BREAKING NEWS! (or Not!): John Merrow Reports that DeVos Contacts Justice Department about Suppressing Ravitch

By dianeravitch
April 4, 2017 //
34

John Merrow posted this strange and disturbing letter today. Several friends contacted me about it to ask if it was true.

It begins like this:

Friends

Although I have now been retired from journalism for 18 months, I haven’t lost touch completely. Happily, some of my former contacts continue to reach out. Yesterday I received this alarming memo in the mail in a plain white envelope. While I have not been able to get a second source to confirm its authenticity, one source swears that it’s genuine. Its contents are disturbing, to say the least.

Here’s the memo in its entirety

“UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
“Qui Pro Domina Justitia Sequitur”

Memo Re Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Diane Ravitch

To Anthony B. Susan, Acting Assistant Attorney General for Community Understanding (AAAGCU)

From James B Kelly II, Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Fundamental Understanding and Communication (ADAAGFUC)

As per your directive, I met privately with U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, a meeting held at her request. Her stated goal was to find ways to muffle, counteract and otherwise minimize what she referred to as “the constant drumbeat of negativity” about her agenda to improve educational opportunities for all children. The meeting lasted 2 hours and 35 minutes.

The Secretary is particularly upset with Diane Ravitch….”

Read the rest of the memo.

I once crossed swords with Lynne Cheney, when she was chair of the NEH, and she had the legal power of the federal government on her side. It is not a nice feeling. She ultimately backed off, but I had to pay for my legal defense and hers was paid for by the government.

So I read this memo with some trepidation. The part that really got under my skin was the allegation that I once hated dogs; anyone who knows me knows that I have always been a dog lover. When they go low, I go high!

The date at the end of the letter made me suspicious.

Categories Betsy DeVos

Jeannie Kaplan: The Phony Narrative about “Success” in Denver

By dianeravitch
April 4, 2017 //
16

Jeannie Kaplan was an elected school board member in Denver for two terms. She has watched the complete takeover of the corporate reform movement with a sense of shock, dismay, alarm. Vast sums of money are expended at each local school board election to keep the privatizers in control.

For the moment, Denver is the darling of the corporate reformers. It has choice. Charter schools. Teach for America. High-stakes testing. Common Core standards. A non-union workforce in new schools. Alternative teachers and alternative leaders. It has everything that reformers want.

Except results.

Study after study hails the Denver reforms.

But by every measure, Denver students are not getting a better education. Segregation is growing. The curriculum is narrowing.

Reform is succeeding but the students are not.

Churn, churn, churn=stagnation.

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Common Core, Corporate Reform, Denver, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization, Testing

Secret Meeting between DeVos’ Brother and Putin Surrogate

By dianeravitch
April 3, 2017 //
15

The Washington Post reports a secret meeting between Erik Prince–brother of Betsy DeVos and owner of private militia Blackwatwer–and a close ally of Putin, after the election, to develop a back-channel means of communicating.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/blackwater-founder-held-secret-seychelles-meeting-to-establish-trump-putin-back-channel/2017/04/03/95908a08-1648-11e7-ada0-1489b735b3a3_story.html

Does this mean Trump doesn’t trust the State Department or Secretary Tillerson? Meanwhile the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner is in Iraq, again circumventing Tillerson. Kushner has no background in foreign affairs or diplomacy.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Trump

Arizona: Legislators Want to Expand Vouchers, Despite Audit Showing Misspent Funds

By dianeravitch
April 3, 2017 //
5

Arizona Republicans are renewing a drive to expand that state voucher program, despite a recent state audit reporting misspent funds and despite a survey showing that most voucher students are leaving high-performing schools in wealthy districts. In last year’s legislative races, Betsy DeVos’s lobbying group spent heavily to elect pro-voucher candidates, more than any other independent political organization.

“Republican lawmakers are renewing their efforts to expand a program that allows parents to use public money to pay the educational expenses of children who attend private schools or are homeschooled.

“The push to expand Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Account program comes in the wake of a state audit that found officials had identified that more than $102,000 in ESA funds were misspent during a six-month period, from August 2015 to January 2016, in addition to other improper purchases, as well as spotty oversight.

“The examples cited by auditors include parents who kept the state’s money after enrolling their children in public school, parents who bought items that are not allowed under the program, such as snow globes and sock monkeys, and parents who didn’t submit required expense reports to the Arizona Department of Education…

“Empowerment Scholarship Accounts allow parents to take money that would otherwise go directly to their local public school, and put it toward private-school tuition, homeschooling, tutoring, therapy, and other education-related expenses. Critics of the program say it siphons money away from public district schools, and over time, could substantially erode school funding.

“Senate Bill 1281, sponsored by Smith, requires the Department of Education to contract with an outside firm to help administer the ESA program, and makes various changes to the program. Read the bill summary here.
Senate Bill 1431, sponsored by Lesko, would make all Arizona students eligible for the ESA program by the 2020-2021 school year. Read the bill as introduced here.

“The Legislature created the program in 2011, limiting it to disabled children. Since then, lawmakers have expanded the program to children in failing schools, children living on tribal lands, siblings of children who have participated in the ESA program, and others. There are currently about 3,200 children in the program in 2017, said Ross Begnoche, the Department of Education’s chief financial officer. The program is currently capped at about 5,000 students. The budget is about $40 million this year.

“Under legislation introduced by Republican Sen. Debbie Lesko, of Peoria, all students would qualify for the ESA program by the 2020-2021 school year.

“Senate Bill 1431 proposes phasing in eligibility, starting in the 2017-2018 school year with students in kindergarten, first grade, sixth grade and ninth grade. Within four years, all students would qualify. A separate bill, Senate Bill 1281, by Republican Sen. Steve Smith, would require the Department of Education to contract with a private firm to manage ESA accounts and require random, quarterly and annual audits of the program….

“Last year, she also sponsored legislation to allow all 1.1 million public schoolchildren to qualify for the ESA program by 2020. That expansion effort came as Gov. Doug Ducey was campaigning for a ballot initiative to put more money into public schools — a message seemingly at odds with legislation that would divert taxpayer money away from public schools. The bill died after an Arizona Republic investigation showed most children using the program were leaving high-performing public schools in wealthy districts.

“Some supportive lawmakers say an ESA expansion could have more momentum this year, given President Donald Trump’s nomination of school-choice advocate and billionaire Betsy DeVos for U.S. secretary of Education. A non-profit she chaired until recently, American Federation for Children, spent nearly $218,000 during the primary for legislative races last year, the most of any independent expenditure committee seeking to influence the outcome of such races.

“The group advocates for school-choice measures across the country and at the Arizona Capitol, where those efforts have included pressing for ESA expansion. On Monday, the group touted Lesko’s legislation, saying it would mean “no Arizona child will be trapped in a school that isn’t working for them.”

Arizona has the best legislature that DeVos money could buy.

Categories Arizona, Betsy DeVos, Fraud, Vouchers

Trump-DeVos Suck Up Watch: PBS Is Showing a Series Attacking Public Schools

By dianeravitch
April 2, 2017 //
42

Laura Chapman wrote the following expose of a new series that will appear on PBS. It must be public television’s effort to curry favor with the Trump administration, as it reflects the extremist agenda of Betsy DeVos, who is intent on creating a free market in publicly-funded schooling. Since Trump’s budget has proposed to eliminate funding for public television, this series may be a demonstration that even PBS will give a showcase to libertarians who want to destroy public institutions.

More than ten years ago, PBS ran a four-part series called SCHOOL, produced by Sarah Patton, Sarah Mondale, and Vera Aronow. It was a history of public education that documented the role of public education in welcoming generations of immigrants and leading the way to a better society. For the past four years the same team has been creating a one-hour documentary exposing the corporate assault on public education. They have struggled to find funding, but they are near completion. The very least that PBS could do to compensate for featuring a one-sided rightwing diatribe against public education would be to show “Backpack Full of Cash,” which portrays the bitter forces of reaction that seek to destroy one of our most treasured democratic institutions, public schools funded by all and open to all.

It is ironic and sad that public television would lend credibility to an attack on public education. Encouraging the forces intent on destroying everything “public” will not save public television.

Chapman writes:

“I just posted about the SCHOOL, INC. television programs on PBS. I did not do enough research. Here is what you really should know about the programs.

“These programs are pure propaganda for so-called free market education. They have been produced courtesy of Free to Choose, a promoter of all things that the late Milton and Rosa Friedman would love.

“The PBS website says that funding for these programs has been provided by the Texas-based Rose-Marie and Jack R. Anderson Foundation. See http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Rose-Marie_and_Jack_R._Anderson_Foundation
The Anderson Foundation s one of several ultra conservative funders, but the series is also sell-funded by being part of the Free to Choose Network. That Network is a non-profit set up by the one of the Executive Producers Bob Chitester

“Bob Chitester is chairman, president and CEO of Free To Choose Network, a 501-c-3 public foundation housing Free To Choose Media, an award-winning, global entertainment company which produces and distributes thought-provoking public television programs and series. In 1977, Chitester and economist Milton Friedman and his wife, Rose, undertook a film project which became Free To Choose, an award-winning PBS TV series and an international best-selling book based on the series. You can learn more about the connection of this non-profit to the Friedman doctrine of market-based education here and elsewhere on the internet. http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Free_to_Choose_Network

“Among the others responsible for the series is Andrew Coulson. Coulson is the Creator, Writer, and Director. His bio, posted on PBS, says Coulson studied mathematics and computer science at McGill University and worked as a Microsoft software engineer. In 1994, he became ” troubled by the fact that teaching and learning were being left behind by the relentless progress in other fields. His book, Market Education: The Unknown History, received endorsements from Washington Post columnist William Raspberry, Nobel laureate economist Milton Friedman, Harvard political scientist Paul Peterson, and University of Chicago education psychologist Herbert Walberg. His 2009 paper for the peer-reviewed Journal of School Choice was the most comprehensive review of the worldwide scientific literature comparing alternative education systems. In 2011 he conducted a statistical study titled “The Other Lottery: Are Philanthropists Backing the Best Charter Schools?” Coulson has ….testified before the United States House and Senate on the state of American education and co-authored amicus briefs for the United States Supreme Court. He was senior fellow in education policy at the Washington, D.C.-based Cato Institute, and contributed chapters to books by the Hoover Institution and Canada’s Fraser Institute. Prior to his death in February 2016, Coulson made arrangements to ensure School, Inc. would be completed for broadcast television.”

“There are many reasons why I support my local PBS broadcasters. This programing is not one of them.

“Overall, I think that PBS has done a miserable job of seeking spokespersons for public education, especially parents, students, administrators and politicians. Diane Ravitch has appeared on Tavis Smiley, Charlie Rose, Bill Moyers and a few other programs, but I have seen no real coverage of the issues facing public education right now.

“I wonder if PBS scheduled this series to coincide with the Betsy DeVos/Trump agenda that will pour money into vouchers and set in motion market-based education as if the new norm for American education. I wonder if Milton and Rosa Friedman smiling. Did PBS intend to insult many of their supporters, including me, by scheduling this series now?

“Please be aware that this PBS series is a propaganda machine for market-based education. The programs are not presented in a context that makes that obvious.

“I intend to let my local PBS stations know that this series looks like a well-planned and perfectly timed promo for the DeVos/Trump agenda.

“I will also ask for them to take affirmative steps to support public education and the public schools in their viewing areas.

“PBS seems to be satisfied with educational programming for use by teachers and cartoony programs for children. Sesame Street is hosted after it has made money elsewhere. Unless I am mistaken, Trump’s proposed budget for PBS will bring a 20% cut, not total elimination.

“PBS needs all the support it can get. This is not a way to support the public schools who serve the majority of our students and with uncommon ingenuity and devotion in the midst of budget cuts and unwarranted, unsupported attacks from billionaires, including the funders of these programs.”

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Privatization, School Choice, Trump, Vouchers

BREAKING NEWS: Julian Vasquez Heilig Has Won OK to Open Five For-Profit Charter Schools in Michigan!

By dianeravitch
April 1, 2017 //
19

Julian Vasquez Heilig has deep ties to the state of Michigan, as he is from Lansing, and he graduated from the University of Michigan. He has made his mark as a scholar of education policy at the University of Texas and now Sacramento State in California. Although he has established a reputation as a well-informed critic of charters, he could not pass up the opportunity to open a chain of charters in his home state of Michigan, where anyone can open a charter school and the financial rewards of for-profit charters are large. What’s principle when profits are so alluring?

The five charters will open this September, which is kind of quick, but then they are mostly online schools. It is no problem that Julian will continue to live in California, because, well, the weather is better.

It took only four weeks to have his request approved, so why wait to get started?

Here are three of his five new charters. You will have to open the link to read about the other two. They are doozies:

SELL Academy: SELL Academy will be primarily online and have a statewide attendance zone and serve grades 9-12. The school plans to implement an online real estate and sales curriculum through partnership with Trump University. The school aims to integrate sales into project-based learning experiences to allow students to develop critical thinking skills and a deeper understanding of sales— including real estate deals. Tremendous! There will be a brick-and-mortar location at a Trump property to be determined later.

Perfect Graduation Academy for Boys: Perfect Academy for Boys will be primarily online have a statewide with a brick-and-mortar location on land to be purchased by school and then leased back to me by my Charter Management Organization at a “great” price. Perfect will serve grades 9-10. The school will be a single-gender charter school that provides a rigorous, college preparatory program for grades 9-12. We will have a 100% graduation rate for everyone that is still at our school after four years. I promise. Perfect Academy for Boys will offer an extended day, week and year religious-based educational program. The focus is on boys, because, well, you know boys.

Exodus Academy for Girls: Exodus Academy for Girls will be primarily online have a statewide with a brick-and-mortar location on land to be purchased by school and then leased back to me by my Charter Management Organization at a “great” price (see above). I am actually thinking I might sell this school before it opens or mid-year. I’m taking offers— I’m ready to exodus.

He says he knows that Betsy DeVos will be thrilled with his success and that he was inspired by her comparison of schools to Ubers and other disruptive innovations in ride-sharing. He wants to be part of the new economy.

Need I say that Julian will be leaving the board of the Network for Public Education as of close of business today?

(April Fool!)

Categories Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Education Reform, For-Profit, Hoax, Humor, Privatization

Future: A Student Thanks “Misses DeVos for My Real Good Education”

By dianeravitch
April 1, 2017 //
7

This post is satire. It appears in The New Yorker as a letter written in 2040 by a student whose education was shaped by Betsy DeVos.

Without saying so, it acknowledges her avid support for school choice that includes schools where children learn nothing other than the religious right version of science (dinosaurs and humans living at the same time), and not much else.

An excerpt:

I am the smartest and oldest student in my school so next year I will go to Harvard right away. I will study rules and politics so some day I can make them good like you did. I would not have this amazing scenario of life without you so thank you again to you.

My private school cost my parents lots of big money (they are better at going into banks than me). I got a good education here and did real good. My favorite parts of school are Prayer Class, Pledge of Allegiance Class, Food Eating Time, Run Around Time, Nap Times 1, 2, and 3, and Science (Nap Time 4).

I like my teachers because they are the only ones left. A lot of them went home because they couldn’t stop crying every time we talked. One Run Around Time I ran by Misses Pensky and heard her say to Mister Graham, “it’s only getting worse. These kids are in their twenties and they can’t even identify the colors of traffic signals. We’re all going to die.” The next day Misses Pensky was gone. I do not know where she went. Maybe to pick out a nice box for when she dies to go to sleep in?

Is it funny or sad? Can you really satirize the madness of putting a religious zealot who knows nothing about education other than “choice” in charge of the U.S. Department of Education?

Categories Betsy DeVos, Humor, U.S. Department of Education

ALERT: Secretary Betsy DeVos Holds Secret Meeting with Russian Grizzly Bear!

By dianeravitch
April 1, 2017 //
6

The National Education Policy Center reports that Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos held a secret meeting with a Russian grizzly bear!

There is an actual photograph of the meeting included in the post!

BOULDER, CO (April 1, 2017) – As part of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s campaign to promote educational vouchers, she held a secret meeting last week with Boo Boo Medvedev, a Russian bear who is said to have close ties to bear leadership throughout the northern hemisphere.

Tensions between the two camps had flared following reports that DeVos had urged American teachers to open fire on members of the bear community. As a result, the powerful bear lobby had threatened to maul politicians who pretended not to know about recent studies of vouchers in Louisiana, Ohio and Indiana, all showing negative test score effects—in some cases, surprisingly large.

An Education Department spokesman announced on Friday that the talks were very successful. “The Secretary explained to Mr. Medvedev that her statements had been falsely reported by the Fake News Liberal Establishment Media™. By the end of the meeting, the Secretary had the bear eating out of her hand.”

Please read the posts to find out what the Bear promised Secretary DeVos.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Humor

Satire: The Betsy DeVos Standardized Test: Are You Smarter than a Billionaire?

By dianeravitch
April 1, 2017 //
5

This is a very funny parody of a standardized test, one that reflects the issues and concerns of our new Secretary of Education.

Only question left out: Is there anything funny about having a Secretary of Education who knows nothing about education? Answer yes or no.

Another one: What kind of president would appoint someone to lead the U.S. Department of Education who wants to get rid of public schools attended by nearly 90% of all American children? An essay question. Or, a constructed response, limited to two sentences.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Humor

Alt_DeptofEd on DeVos

By dianeravitch
April 1, 2017 //
10

Time to start the April Fools Day festivities.

Betsy DeVos said at Brookings that she is “not a numbers person,” to explain her ignorance of research about the poor results of charters and vouchers.

Dissident employees within the U.S. Department of Education have a Twitter account, where they responded to her comment:

“Or a letters person, or a schools person, or a teachers person, or an education person. Quit 👏🏽 Your 👏🏽 Job 👏🏽

Categories Betsy DeVos
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